Karl Passes with Minor Impact

Tropical Storm Karl failed to strengthen into a Hurricane as it passed Bermuda. Karl’s structure dramatically changed and deep convection waned in the final hours of approach. This was evidenced in aircraft reconnaissance missions that were ongoing into the storm into the early hours of Saturday. The region of peak winds shifted from the northwest quadrant to the southeast quadrant, and the center of the storm was surrounded by a gaping region of moderate winds.

Karl about 85 nm south-southwest of Bermuda with deep convection near the center beginning to organize into an eye-like feature. 1:55am local time.Karl near closest point of approach, about 45 nm southeast of the island. deep convection redeveloping north and west of the center, but not as organized or as close to the center. 5:58am local time.

Karl passed about 45 nm southeast of the island just before 6am on Saturday with maximum sustained winds near 65mph. Winds around Bermuda peaked later in the morning as Karl moved away and winds backed to the north. Observations show sustained winds generally peaked in the 20-40 kts range with gusts up to 50 kts, particularly in elevated and exposed areas. Further, only these exposed locations saw sustained tropical storm force winds and even then, only in/around gusty showers.

Storm total rains from Karl officially reached 4.71″ at the airport. Automated personal weather stations around the island saw notably lower storm totals and this might be an artifact of measuring methods. Measuring rainfall accurately in tropical cyclones is notoriously difficult because of the accompanying high winds and I would suspect that the official total is likely closer to what actually fell.

Aside from a few delayed business openings, some transportation disruption, and isolated power outages, Bermuda fared well through Karl.

See a preliminary and unofficial list of observations around Bermuda from Wundground and BWS: